heart are
so many, that numerous instructions may seem to be useless, and a
mother may have often to sigh over her child as she sees him
allowing evil habits to obtain the mastery, or unholy dispositions
to reign in his heart; but, as we have before said, we do not think
that the instruction will be lost, but that a time will come when
she will reap the fruits of her toil, care and anxiety.

Such then is the duty of woman as a mother--to tend and watch over
the wants of her child, to guard it in health, to nurse it in
sickness, to be solicitous for it in all the changes of life, and to
prevent, as much as possible, those many ills to which flesh is heir
from assailing her fondly cherished offspring.

It is also her province to instruct her children in those duties
which will fall to their lot both as reasonable and as immortal
creatures; and by so doing she will make her own life happy--leave
to her children a happy heritage on earth, and a prospect of a
higher one in heaven. But if a mother neglect her duty, she will
reap the fruits of her own negligence in the ingratitude of her
children--an ingratitude which will bring a double pain to her, from
the thought that her own neglect was the cause of its growth, as an
eagle with an arrow in his heart might be supposed to feel an agony
above that of pain on seeing the shaft now draining its life's blood
feathered from its own wing.

Mrs. Child, in her excellent "Mother's Book," a volume that should
be in the hands of every woman who has assumed the responsibilities
of a parent, gives some valuable suggestions on the subject of
governing children. I make a single extract and with it close my
present rambling work. She says:

"Some children, from errors in early management, get possessed with
the idea that they may have every thing. They even tease for things
it would be impossible to give them. A child properly managed will
seldom ask twice for what you have once told him he should not have.
But if you have the care of one who has acquired this habit, the
best way to cure him of it is never to give him what he asks for,
whether his request is proper or not; but at the same time be
careful to give him such things as he likes, (provided they are
proper for him,) when he does not ask for them. This will soon break
him of the habit of teasing.

"I have said much in praise of gentleness. I cannot say too much.
Its effects are beyond calculation, both on the affections and